Another year, another polly on the ropes over expense claims. Sussan Ley has been on the receiving end of a media pommeling and the collective wisdom is she’s been a naughty minister. She has been dispatched to Coventry and the view is she should settle down and grow accustomed to her new home.
As an observer of various entitlements farragoes over the years, I think Ms Leys’ spending puts her in exalted company, somewhere between Peter Slipper and the guv’nor, Labor’s Mal Colston. Spending $21,000 in a week or so on transport is extraordinary. I didn’t even think it was possible. With those frequent flyer miles, you can forget about the carrot sticks and chardy in the Qantas club. It’s foot-long lobster subs and Moët by the schooner. Hell, they’ll get you your own plane. Maybe even let you fly it.
The Minchin Protocol always sounded like a bad novel and now as it comes to its denouement, it is about as satisfying as an EH Holden Mechanics’ manual or anything knocked out by Clementine Ford.
Full column here.
Great to see I’m getting at you you sweetie 😘
Razor re-various ridiculous projections of yours. Lets start way up the page. Milton stated what a “real man” does. I corrected him using some Seinfeld stuff. Go and have a crack at Milton about what he sees as a real man. He may even help you head in the right direction to becoming one. Next your dishonest comment about me walking the streets. I said I was walking down Church street Parramatta one night. Very different to your dishonest projection. Pathetic. I am not sure how you became obsessed it is obviously something to do with your inferiority complex and because I continually show you to be wrong. You continue to project your inferiority complex through your accusations of misogyny , your latent homosexual insults, your veiled threats of violence your projecting of events of your life behind servo’s onto others. The list goes on and on. you will respond with the same type of projections no doubt. Your inferiority complex may have driven the pathological dishonesty or vice a versa. Either way you continue project your own inner failings. It is very sad. I take some responsibility because I allowed myself to dip my toe into the gutter scum to associate with a troll like you. I can see why you support the likes of trump and hanson, they run the same dishonest ways as you.
Big Jules Bishop pulls out of the Portsea Polo today Mr Insider and I for one am stunned, nay shattered. It was recently revealed her attendance last year cost Taxpayers some $2700 sloppy dollars, so on the plus side a wee save. Will Jules give up flying around the world to take on the now vacant Heath portfolio we shall soon see as Malcolm rearranges the deck chairs on the “Titanic”. Meanwhile only 5 more days to the inauguration of Donald as POTUS , who would have “thunk” that! Balls to the wind Donald I say stick it up those Commie bastards!
http://tinyurl.com/zqh8ka4
This looks worse to me. She goes to the polo when we pay, but loses interest when she has to pay herself. It makes the original mistake look worse.
You Mr X have first choice of ministry.
OK Mac. If there’s a Minister for Roast Lamb and Guinness count me in. Bit handy with horses too if that’s any help, but there probably isn’t a Minister for Blokes Who are Handy with Horses. But I can’t grow one of them Papa Joe Stalin moustaches. the big curly ones that command authority and respect. I attempted a mo once when I was a high school boy and Father Brennan named me Rufus the Unruly. The name stuck and I hated it, but I got him back. When I was dragged to Confession, I would go into the box and offer a cheerful ‘nothing to report’.
Agree, X. Wasn’t a good look, was it! An admission of guilt in fact. Which is more than Ley did. She still hasn’t acknowledged she was rorting – and Turnbull won’t tell us what the audit found.
Tracy 05:39pm .
One thing Americans comes to mind turning against the Washington Post, is they find they are a real political network bias ant-Bush.They are the bigots of hate that tried to denigrate the Republicans and much what they post , Americans then went the other way towards Trump .They fail to add the Republicans suffered the worlds worst financial terrorism disaster on record lost many trillions of dollars over WTC 911 disaster .
Washington Post are a real socialist engineering PC network now have egg on their face putting anything in that does not balance up .No mention the 19.9 trillion Obama finished with doubling Bushe’s debt alone he clocked up.
Nothing on Obama only 1.46% per annum growth much worse then earlier governments averaging 3.35% since 1930–2015 average as now pointed out by John Adams. WHERE the Washington Post on that?
To be blunt Rodent I don’t really care what you think, Jack took the time to set up this blog for us to keep going and all we get is the tedium of you and Dismayed (and a few others) bitching and sniping at each other. There isn’t a topic on this earth that you lot haven’t hurled dung bombs at each other over.
Tracy, I agree getting to the point where we need to check out of this bloody boys club.
JTI has created a terrific blog, but once again it’s all about the blokes insulting each other. It’s just tiresome….
Rodent, I read and subscribe to The Australian, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Economist, The Wall St. Journal and the AFR all online because of the work I do. I am able to discern good journalism from bad journalism and note that whilst most is good journalism, there are some who try to push their partisan views (both sides) down your throat…..I don’t read them.
I think most of us can make up our own minds about the state of the world and the economy without being influenced either way. Donald Trump believes that CNN is fake news, but has said he respects both the New York Times and The Washington Post……well,this week anyway.
I also follow quite a few respected people on Twitter. Thankfully I can’t listen to talk-back radio because of where I live, but when I am in Australia I rely on the ABC for both news and entertainment. And when in Darwin I always buy the NT News, just because I can.
I have to finally agree with Jack from Hong Kong that the Fairfax papers are pretty useless, not because of bad journalism but their online copy is sloppy and badly edited.
What I’m trying to say Rodent, believe what you like about some papers coming from the socialist left, but I find if you keep an open mind any information you can get from any media has to be good particularly if you are interested in gaining new knowledge.
CotC…..that was a fine apology. Well done
Penny, also have a subscription to the Washington Post, The Oz, The Times and The Economist and I read on a regular basis many of the usual suspects. Does it make me a lefty/righty?……no bloody idea, always thought it’s better to get a different view of things and then make my own mind up.
The news sources mentioned by you and Penny have long ago abandoned any investigative journalism and, generally speaking, only report that which they are allowed to by their corporate bosses.Investigative reporting is where all the hard work is done and needs to be read if you want balance.
The best outlets publishing inv. journalism are, IMO, Information Clearing House, Common Dreams and The Unz Review. Mention could also be made of Salon.com, Counterpunch and Asia Times online (atimes.com).
If you are set in your views they are very challenging, however if you are genuinly interested in broadening your perspective they are exceptional.
penny, fairfax have punted almost anyone who could write, and they really only cater for the inner suburbs lot.
they didn’t used to, the Age was a great great newspaper. in fact with it and the Sun, the most widely read paper in the country, we were spoilt. on my paper round in a little country town, every house bar two got the Sun, and a few got the Age as well, but the Sun had amazing market penetration.
i don’t think the ABC is biased exactly, but it is boringly predictable.
Jack, my father bought The Sun every day on his way to work and then had it delivered when he retired. He loved the crossword, Keith Dunstan etc. and I don’t think he ever read any other newspaper. I started to read The Age when I moved to Melbourne and just loved it. I went out with an Age journalist for about 6 months until he was posted overseas.
When my husband and I first moved to Darwin we would buy the weekend edition just to remind us of what was going on in Melbourne and the rest of the nation/world
I was still persisting with it online up until about 12months ago, when I could take no more. It is such a shame, because as you say we were spoilt…..
As Tracy has noted there are a lot of worthwhile publications out there that support good journalism and unbiased commentary. As for the ABC being boring and predictable at least it’s better than the stuff we get here in Malaysia
Rodent. Please. Obama halved Bush’s deficit. Every respected voice o t he planet agrees with that fact. Not sure where you are getting your stuff from but I would ask for my money back if I was you.
Well! I hope you miserable peasants are satisfied now.
http://www.9news.com.au/national/2017/01/14/10/41/bishop-pulls-out-of-polo-event-in-wake-of-expenses-scandal.
And I wanted her to run an eye over a couple of my difficult ponies. One look usually sorts ’em out.
Ah well, a bit too much to hope, but she might be so cheesed off she’ll accidentally hit that whale murdering Abe with a glare that leaves him permanently cross-eyed.
Better not be any of the ones I’m looking at Baptiste! I want them untouched……
You’re sounding a little hoarse Razor.
Neigh
Dismayed (Jan 13 9.57pm)
says: ” … Carl. Just another ridiculous comment from you. ”
I admit to making a grave mistake in the coment you refer to Dismayed, by my inferring you may have the appearance of possessing a “homophobic” streak.
I was completely out of order, I am deeply embarrassed and I offer you my sincere apology.
I had quite a different descriptor in mind when I posted the comment but I shall not mention it here lest it be seen to be in any way an attempt to dilute the regretful acknowledgement of my offence.
In short, I stuffed up mate, and I’m sorry.
cc. Penny (Jan13, 10.28pm).
Carl. Well humility is the lesson in life we should all learn. I have a degree in it. Moving on. Till next time. Take care.
Well that particular degree must have arrived courtesy of the back of a cornflake box.
Mac 11:01PM
Carping? Curious I think. Wasn’t one of those characters handing out the booze prizes for some competition or other? Somebody must have got them , so someone must be real. Oh, I get it you’re curious too. You tricked me.
As for your proposed pie in the sky folly of regulatory madness. What are you thinking man! Look at the drop kicks we get already! Imagine if there was no possibility of rorts. We’d have a similar calibre except they would be lacking in guile and ambition at all. We wonder if some of the current lot are working for us or the multinationals willingly or inadvertently as it is.
Having said that, there is no reason our politicians need to travel anywhere in this day of communications. It’s fine for the polished con artist masters of persuasion working for private enterprise, but our politicians showing their gormless mugs and rustic ambience in person must on the average be counter productive for public relations and the national interests surely?
Thinks “Hmmmn I’ll get a few drinks into this dolt, find out just how much he or she does not understand and take ’em to the cleaners on the morrow or unspecified dates hence.”
It would be interesting though to employ a performance bonus system, whereby the public votes at each election whether or not the member just finishing a term gets paid their bonus over and above their retainer. The flaws are obvious but it would be fun watching them trying to be, or at least appearing to be Ghandi.
Give ’em heaps.
Dismayed .
This I copied from John Adams editorialist.
Here is won to dig yourself out of your messy posts lately.
Obama despite Congress closed him down on spending , as left the US economy into financial ruin.
Under Obama , the American economy grew at a paltry 1.46% per annum against a long term average of 3.35%1930 to 2015.
The government under Obama has doubled its gross debt to US$ 19.9 trillion and has budgeted to deliver 10 years of future deficits .Gross debt under Obama would reach 28.2 trillion in 2026.
This is why Dismayed Americans acted accordingly to been worried about jobs as industry closed down in most of America feeding the likes of China on imports before themselves . Under Obama who also messed up overseas relations creating the rise of ISIS , was weak in diplomacy after Bush eventually stabilised the ME after aggressive Islamic invasions into Kuiwait getting rid of the butcher Sadam ho killed millions .Bob Hawke joined us into that war with 22 other nations including America making sure world energy trade was not effected.
Lets cut the bias crap that is was all Bush fault when he only run up 4.6 trillion dollars debts on his own .Obama been placed in a easy road onwards , doubled the Bush debt .Bush spent trillions on clean renewable energy if you care to lift your head out of the sand .
O’Bama is STILL fighting Bush’s 3 wars he caused as well as paying the huge tax cuts
he gave to business at the expense of the poor. Who bailed out the banks during the GFC? The taxpayers-
big business never bails out taxpayers. Are you dreaming or is this a nightmare?
&
WHY BUSH WAS the WORST PRESIDENT IN HISTORY after NIXON
He stole the presidency in 2000. People may forget that Republicans in Florida purged more than 50,000 African-American voters before Election Day, and then went to the Supreme Court where the GOP-appointed majority stopped a recount that would have awarded the presidency to Vice-President Al Gore if all votes were counted. National news organizations verified that outcome long after Bush had been sworn in.
Bush’s lies started in that race. Bush ran for office claiming he was a “uniter, not a divider.” Even though he received fewer popular votes than Gore, he quickly claimed he had the mandate from the American public to push his right-wing agenda.
He covered up his past. He was a party boy, the scion of a powerful political family who got away with being a deserter during the Vietnam War. He was reportedly AWOL for over a year from his assigned unit, the Texas Air National Guard, which other military outfits called the “Champagne Division.”
He ignored warnings about Osama bin Laden and even befriended him! He ignored the Aug. 6, 2001 White House intelligence briefing titled, “Bin Laden determined to strike in the U.S.” Meanwhile, his chief anti-terrorism advisor, Richard Clarke, and first Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill, testified in Congress that he was intent on invading Iraq within days of becoming president.
“My Pet Goat.” He kept reading a picture book to grade-schoolers at a Florida school for seven minutes after his top aides told him that the World Trade Centers had been attacked in 9/11. Then Air Force One flew away from the school, vanishing for hours after the attack. Definitely the sign of a madman.
Bush turned to Iraq not Afghanistan. The Bush administration soon started beating war drums for an attack on Iraq, where there was no proven Al Qaeda link, instead of Afghanistan, where the 9/11 bombers had trained and Osama bin Laden was based. His 2002 State of the Union speech declared that Iraq was part of an “Axis of Evil.”
Attacked United Nation weapons inspectors. The march to war in Iraq started with White House attacks on the credibility of U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq, whose claims that Saddam Hussein did not have nuclear weapons proved to be true. There were no weapons of mass destruction. A lie so bad his senior General Colin Powell resigned!
He flat-out lied about Iraq’s weapons. In a major speech in October 2002, he said that Saddam Hussein had the capacity to send unmanned aircraft to the U.S. with bombs that could range from chemical weapons to nuclear devices. “We cannot wait for the final proof—the smoking gun—that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud,” he said.
He ignored the U.N. and launched a war. The Bush administration tried to get the U.N. Security Council to authorize an attack on Iraq, which it refused to do. Bush then decided to lead a “preemptive” attack regardless of international consequences. He did not wait for any congressional authorization to launch a war.
He launched a war on CIA whistleblowers. When a former ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson, wrote a New York Times op-ed saying there was no nuclear threat from Iraq, the White House retaliated byleaking the name and destroying the career of his wife, Valerie Plame, one of the CIA’s top national security experts.
Bush launched the second Iraq War. In April 2003, the U.S. military invaded Iraq for the second time in two decades, leading to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths and more than a million refugees as a years of sectarian violence took hold on Iraq. Nearly 6,700 U.S. soldiers have died in the Iraq and Afghan wars.
Baghdad looted except for oil ministry. The Pentagon failure to plan for a military occupation and transition to civilian rule was seen as Baghdad was looted while troopsguarded the oil ministry, suggesting this war was fought for oil riches, not terrorism.
The war did not make the U.S or the world. Safer-terrorism has increased. In 2006, a National Intelligence Estimate (a consensus report of the heads of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies) asserted that the Iraq war had increased Islamic radicalism and had worsened the terror threat.
He never attended soldiers’ funerals. For years after the war started, Bush never attended a funeral even though as of June 2005, 144 soldiers (of the 1,700 killed thus far) were laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, about two miles from the White House.
Meanwhile, war profiteering surged.The list of top Bush administration officials whose former corporate employers made billions in Pentagon contracts starts with Vice-President Dick Cheney and Halliburton, which made $39.5 billion, and included his daughter, Liz Cheney, who ran a $300 million Middle East partnership program.
Bush ignored international ban on torture. Suspected terrorists were captured and tortured by the U.S. military in Baghdad’s Abu Gharibprison, in the highest profile example of how the Bush White House ignored international agreements, such as the Geneva Convention, that banned torture, and created a secret system of detention that was unmasked when photos made their way to the American media outlets.
Created the blackhole at Gitmo and renditions. The Bush White House created the offshore military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as secret detention sites in eastern Europe to evade domestic and military justice systems. Many of the men still jailed in Cuba were turned over to the U.S. military by bounty hunters. David Hicks was bounty hunted and handed over.
Bush violated U.S. Constitution as well.The Bush White House ignored basic civil liberties, most notably by launching a massive domestic spying program where millions of Americans’ online activities weremonitored with the help of big telecom companies. The government had no search warrant or court authority for its electronic dragnet. The Abbott government is doing the same thing in Australia.
Iraq war created federal debt crisis.The total costs of the Iraq and Afghan wars will reach between $4 trillion and $6 trillion, when the long-term medical costs are added in for wounded veterans, a March 2013 report by a Harvard researcher has estimated. Earlier reports said the wars cost $2 billion a week.
He cut veterans’ healthcare funding. At the height of the Iraq war, the White House cut funding for veterans’ healthcare by several billion dollars, slashed more than one billion from military housing and opposed extending healthcare to National Guard families, even as they were repeatedly tapped for extended and repeat overseas deployments.
Then Bush decided to cut income taxes. In 2001 and 2003, aseries of bills lowered income tax rates, cutting federal revenues as the cost of the foreign wars escalated. The tax cuts disproportionately benefited the wealthy, with roughly one-quarter going to the top one percent of incomes compared to 8.9% going to the middle 20 percent. The cuts were supposed to expire in 2013, but most are still on the books.
Cut Pell Grant loans for poor students. His administration froze Pell Grants for years and tightened eligibility for loans, affecting 1.5 million low-income students. He left the rich alone.
Turned corporations loose on environment. Bush’s environmental record was truly appalling, starting with abandoning a campaign pledge to tax carbon emissions and then withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases. The Sierra Club lists 300 actions his staff took to undermine federal laws, from cutting enforcement budgets to putting industry lobbyists in charge of agencies to keeping energy policies secret.
Average household incomes fell. When Bush took office in 2000, median household incomes were $52,500. In 2008, they were $50,303, a drop of 4.2 percent, making Bush the only recent two-term president to preside over such a drop.
And millions more fell below the poverty line. When Bill Clinton left office, 31.6 million Americans were living in poverty. When Bush left office, there were 39.8 million, according to the U.S. Census, an increase of 26.1 percent. The Census said two-thirds of that growth occurred before the economic downturn of 2008.
Poverty among children also exploded. The Census also found that 11.6 million children lived below the poverty line when Clinton left office. Under Bush, that number grew by 21 percent to 14.1 million.
Millions more lacked access to healthcare. Following these poverty trends, the number of Americans without health insurance was 38.4 million when Clinton left office. When Bush left, that figure had grown by nearly 8 million to 46.3 million, the Census found. Those with employer-provided benefits fell every year he was in office.
Bush was a closed shop and set a record for fewest press conferences. During his first term that was defined by the 9/11 attacks, he had the fewest press conferences of any modern president and had never met with the New York Times editorial board.
Bush took the most vacation time. Reporters analyzing Bush’s record found that he took off 1,020 days in two four-year terms—more than one out of every three days. No other modern president comes close. Bush also set the record for the longest vacation among modern presidents—five weeks, the Washington Post noted.
He’s escaped accountability for his actions. From Iraq war General Tommy Franks’ declaration that “we don’t do body counts” to numerous efforts to impeach Bush and top administration officials—primarily over launching the war in Iraq—he has never been held to account in any official domestic or international tribunal.
He may have stolen the 2004 election as well. The closest Bush came to a public referendum on his presidency was the 2004 election, which came down to the swing state of Ohio. There the GOP’s voter suppression tactics rivaled Florida in 2000 and many unresolved questions remain about whether the former GOP Secretary of State altered the Election Night totals from rural Bible Belt counties.
George W. Bush was more than eight years of missed opportunities for America and the world. He was a disaster, leaving much of America and the world in much worse shape than when he took the oath of office in 2001. His reputation should not be resurrected or restored or seen as anything other than what it was.
Say again BASSMAN?????????
Fantastic post Bassman, I’ve read it twice already. You sure know how to do your homework mate.
How anyone could still be brainwashed by the ‘official’ explanations of Bush’s time as POTUS is beyond me.
Yes he should have been impeached and by rights he should be tried today for war crimes.
Not surprised he ran America into the ground, exactly the same black hole his business opportunities went before he became POTUS. His daddy had enormous sway to set him up in the oil business and in all probability his daddy had no small hand in his conspicuous failure as President.
I for one appreciate the history lesson Bman.
My best, Bella
ahh, so Goerge W Bush was responsible for everything you don’t like from January 2001 until the 9th November 2016.
Bill Clinton gets a pass and Barrack Obama bears no responsibility for anything that occurred during or after his presidency.
i believe that Bush didn’t vote for Trump, but he must be relived that his near sixteen year job is finally over, and Trump can carry the can.
don’t take up history as a hobby.
Just wrong. Plain and simple. Wrong.
Rodent that is, Bassman great work
Baptiste here’s one for your scrapbook, a piece on a melting glacier. Snott always there to help you old son. Don’t tell Coast or all hell will break loose.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-14/antarctic-mapping-to-shed-light-on-glacial-melt/8180032
Dismayed 09:42pm.
Just had another read of your ranting being of the impertinence nature having so much hate in your posts.Your often indescretion of posts , pose a real problem being undignified, a bigot , so self-inflated that your inappropriate behavior has shown signs that no matter what good policies this women displays, you just present your vile 24 hrs of the day. Your posts often show attack is your main aim while never researching the facts. Logical commitment Dismayed also falls short deep into a negative territory,
The only thing comes from you been logical , is your cricket. Authenticity seems well ahead until you take aim and find guidance from a professional that can mount you back onto the rails .
Settle down Dismayed and present yourself into an orderly manner!
Rodent,
Your insight and the ability to get to the heart of a matter is what impresses me most about you! You also have the rare talent of being able to get complex messages across in short and unambiguous terms. Keep it up!
Well I’ll be stuffed! You are from the planet Zog too Razor!
Name 1 Policy of Hanson’s that will improve this Nation. 1. You have nothing. Oh maybe Hawkes Australia card now??